Yammer, an name you most likely haven’t heard until Microsoft shined a light on it. A $1 billion light to be precise. That is what the Windows support team has valued it, and is closing a deal to buy it.
What is Yammer? It is a private social network for companies. Huh? It’s like Facebook, but just for companies. In other words, it’s an Intranet, or private web site, where staff can write posts, private messages, share an update, poll, event, or question. You can stay up to date with Yammer on your desktop and phone.
It’s actually a perfect fit for Microsoft. The Microsoft support folks specialize in more of computer support for office networks although they have tried to break into the home computer support market. Yammer allows Microsoft to further extend more office options to its customers. I can definitely see Yammer being integrated into the Windows operating system or at least Microsoft Outlook just like LinkedIn has for contacts.
Yammer has actually been integrated into Microsoft SharePoint which is its own company Intranet forum site. Some IT experts say that Yammer competes more with Salesforce and Chatter, two CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications. When Microsoft partners with Yammer, it will offer an instant CRM tool through its own software. That will help Microsoft eat into more of the software market share that is up for grabs.